WHAT'S CURRENTLY ON OUR TIVO?

This is Boston's new found LOVE! I actually think its pretty cute and MUCH better than Thomas the Train. Every morning, afternoon AND evening he asks to watch Chuggington. No worries, I don't let him watch it THAT much but I will say it is watched DAILY!

LOOK WHO CAME TO VISIT....

back in December...

I've been meaning to post this FOREVER but I'm a slacker...but here goes!

Before Christmas Little Miss Isabel and Halle (oh...and Kiers) came to hang out for a week while Kent was off on a recruiting trip to Utah. We always LOVE their company and have a TOTAL blast while they're here. Wanna know what we did?

We read books together

We played at the park even though after about 15 minutes of being there we decided it was MUCH TOO windy and cold to be playing outside.

We hung out at home together

We did some extra loving on sweet Halle girl!

Boston LOVES this little girl and still talks about little Halle!

We watched movies together (can you tell maybe they're annoyed that I'm in their way?)

Of course we couldn't pass up a little Chuck E Cheese

Even Kiers couldn't resist...hey, its "where a KID can be a KID" right?!?

And we ended with some ice cream....which later we were reminded why you don't give your kids sugar RIGHT before bedtime....

I'm glad I got company instead of being a loner all week and I'm even happier Boston got to play with Isabel (although he DID scare her a few times with his screaming capabilities)! Those two kids crack me up! Thanks for coming Kiers---I promise I'll be in Dallas soon!

STRIKE

A few weekends ago, I thought about going bowling so I asked Boston and OF COURSE he flipped his lid with excitement! He LOVES to bowl! So off we went to the white trash bowling alley (THAT never changes) but for some reason the cost has gone up TREMENDOUSLY from forever ago! What happened to $2 shoes & $4 games?!? Not the case any more!

Boston would bowl...and wait and wait and WAIT (because his ball went sooooo slow) at the line until his pins fell down.

Then when he realized he got to go AGAIN....well I can't describe his excitement! He LOVED it and RACED to grab his ball and wanted to be INDEPENDENT and bowl by himself EVERY TIME!

I can't say Boston had all the fun because Kent and I did too....even though I TOTALLY blew it! Guess when you stop bowling for so long you lose your touch......

FINAL SCORES:

Boston: 65

Karlee: 94

Kent: 159

(even though he claims higher but it wasn't....)

NAWLINS DARLIN'

One of the days we were in Baton Rouge, we took a little trip down to New Orleans. I was determined to do something DIFFERENT from what we usually do down there and I think we accomplished that!

By the time my family finally got ready, out to door and down to New Orleans it was lunch time. All the good restaurants have LINES around the corner waiting to get in so since we had 5 kids with us, we decided to find some place WITHOUT lines. So we "settled" for Mr. B's! IT WAS SUPERB!!!!!! I LOVED IT (although I don't know how excited they were when they saw us bring 5 kids in...)! Now, I'm just waiting to go back to his other restaurant Dicky Brennans so I can try that steak that Kent has gone ON AND ON about since LAST Christmas!

After lunch, we headed up to ride to STREET CAR (yes, STREET CAR NOT trolley, cable car, etc.) which I PERSONALLY thought would be enjoyable for everyone. Boston LOVED it....he kept quoting Polar Express and saying, "ALL ABOARD THE POLAR EXPRESS!!!" Rylee and Sophie also played along by asking to "punch our tickets please!"

Although most of us enjoyed it, this picture pretty much sums up how Kari felt about it. Let's just say a stop and go streetcar that lasts about 45 minutes (that's to ONE end...let me remind you we had to go BACK) did not keep Krew very entertained.

We stopped in the Garden District and got a little Coldstone so everyone could breath, calm down and prep for the ride back.

You can't help but love this little Chuckles (Chad's IDENTICAL TWIN)...his momma ain't so bad either!

We drove through the Garden District which is where all the BEAUTIFUL southern style homes reside. Somewhere Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt have a house but I have NO idea which one was theirs and quite frankly being a Jennifer Aniston fan, I wasn't too overly anxious to try and spot it either.

For one reason or the other the streetcar ride took quite sometime so we weren't left with much time to do anything else. Although we WERE determined to get beignets before we left. We didn't have time to sit and eat at Cafe Du Monde so we had to get them to go. A person from each car was designated to be dropped of, stand in line and get the beignets to then be picked back up when the cars drove back by (there is NO parking quick parking in the Quarter). I about lost my husband since his phone DIED WHILE I was getting the beignets and he was MIA. After a little panic and a search around the streets of New Orleans, we were reunited. I wanted to get mad at him for not realizing his phone was about to die BEFORE I got out of the car OR while we were BBMing the WHOLE time I was in line but when I got in the car and saw how concerned and worried he was, I didn't have the heart (what can I say, I'm a softy).

Great day. Great fun. Great company.

SOOO much to do in New Orleans and I've probably only done 1/4 of it!

MEETING MIKE

We took the kids down to LSU to meet Mike the Tiger in his new home while we were in Louisiana.

Boston preferred staying on Kent's shoulders the whole time as opposed to walking (this is his "new" thing now since we've been trying to ween him away from having us HOLD his 35+ pound self all the time...trust me my hips are seriously suffering from this).

After the kids had enough of the WOW factor over Mike, we decided to let the kids go have some fun on the Indian mounds (Indian Mounds: 2 random hills on LSU campus that are supposedly older than the ancient pyramids. They don't know their use but apparently they are pretty important??).

I took a try at rolling down the mounds and realized, no I am NOT as young as I used to be and I think I was sick for the next hour or so. Boston preferred running down the mounds instead of rolling....this shot was actually the LAST time he ran down because it ended in quite the nose dive.

We ended this day with some GOOOOOOOD Ninfa eating (our families FAVORITE Mexican restaurant) and called it a day!

FIRST ANNUAL BONFIRE!

While we were in Louisiana we had all the intentions on camping out in my parents backyard one night. Well....the weather was colder than we expected it to be so instead we just decided to have a big bonfire (something I now think should become a tradition).

Tell me this isn't the saddest/funniest thing ever! This boy hates, I mean HATES, putting on sweaters or coats! Poor kid, he just wants a little freedom and doesn't want to be all confind in that thing!

One of the funniest moments of the night (and probably for the rest of the trip) was when all the sudden we see my dad running at the fire and JUMPING...YES JUMPING over the BONFIRE! He tripped on a log and came down falling on his side. STUPID? Yes. HILARIOUS? Yes. All the kids started crying because he LITERALLY looked like he had caught fire and then fallen and broken bones! Poor kids. Dad, we don't need anymore surgeries this year so although it was funny, let's play it safe...okay?

Anyway, maybe next year we'll get lucky to get the camping part in if its a TAD warmer but the bonfire did us well and the kids LOVED running circles round and round it like a bunch of Indians!

OUR 6TH CHRISTMAS TOGETHER!

We are back from Louisiana and trying to get our lives back in order for the New Year. I SHOULD be unpacking, cleaning, doing laundry and organizing but I'm not. Instead I'm blogging about Christmas!

I was THRILLED about Christmas this year because Boston TOTALLY got it. I couldn't WAIT to see his face on Christmas morning and watch all his reactions.

Every Christmas Eve we have a tradition to open ONE present. This ONE present happens to be new Christmas jammies every year (as a kid it took me awhile to catch onto this).

I was THRILLED when I stumbled across these pj's for Boston's this year! They were EXACTLY what I was looking for AND I even scored and found some red slippers!!!

Kent refused in year ONE of our marriage to have Christmas pj's pants SOOO in order to keep him happy, it his a "tradition" to get him new basketball shorts that he wears to bed instead (marriage is compromise right?).

We then headed over to Hillary's house for a "Cajun" Christmas Eve with Kent's family.

See a resemblance in these two?

Little Melia smiling for the camera (she put on makeup earlier that day).

Meet the HILARIOUS little Heather Marie....."I just want my candy" (said in her sweet little southern accent)!

The last gift of the night was for Carol......

We all pitched in and got her this:

If anyone deserves it, SHE DOES!

Christmas morning came and went too fast personally.....Boston scored with a ton more toys from Santa (thank GOODNESS he also remembered to include books & puzzles)!

Santa made Charlie's dreams come true by getting him EVERY car from the movie "CARS" and he was in HEAVEN the rest the morning!

Papa and Mimi also made sure Santa packed THIS toy on his sled which SCORED MAJOR points with the grand kids!

From the time that Santa brought these new Geotrax til we got up in the morning, they same how managed to STOP working. So Boston's most exciting gift turned out to be a FLOP!

Kelli and Rylee both scored Snuggies from Mimi and Papa (yes, this WAS a desired item from BOTH of them).

Then dad opened the LAST present under the tree and got a little emotional (well, we all did). Some sweet ladies in our stake made my dad a blanket sewn with all the stake t-shirts over 9 1/2 years he was stake pres. (he got released this past June). It was a sweet moment and a PERFECT gift to top Christmas day!

Oh, we did open one more gift after that and it was one of the most creative little gifts I've seen in awhile! They were tissue boxes and the tag on them said something like "....here's a little something to 'blow' after Christmas!" We started to pull out a wad of cash! PERFECT GIFT! Thanks CALVERTS!!!

Mom and Dad had a sweet moment dancing in the kitchen celebrating her Christ Botti tickets dad got her (they are too cute).

Of course we had our Christmas day breakfast (more like BRUNCH) that daddy makes every year. It is always SUPERB! I'm hoping we can keep this tradition going when we start doing Christmas at our own house but I don't know if we'll be able to live up to dad's cooking!

Why no Kari in this picture? They did Christmas with the Combe's in Utah this year and didn't come until that Sunday.....we were SOOO sad little Krew didn't get to spend his FIRST Christmas with us!!!

We had a FABULOUS Christmas with our families in Louisiana! Each year they get better and BETTER!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!